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‘Artist friendly’ stock media marketplace Pond5, is making a move to expand its global footprint today with the announcement that it has acquired Czech Republic-based rival Pixmac.

The deal will see Pixmac’s team, technology, and assets become part of Pond5. While the size of the deal hasn’t been announced, Pond5 tells us that Pixmac is “a great company that we fortunately got at a great price.”

Four-year-old Pixmac’s emphasis on international markets is a key benefit to US-based Pond5 here. The Czech company supports 17 languages and multiple currencies mainly in Europe, and the deal complements Pond5’s existing strengths in the USA and Latin America.

Pond5, which tells us it has 500,000 registered users and is approaching a run-rate of $10 million in revenue, prides itself on letting artists set their own prices and offering a higher percentage of sales revenue to those artists, compared with its rivals. Indeed, the 6,000+ photographers and illustrators who list their work on Pixmac will get their royalty split bumped up to Pond5’s standard 50%.

It’s set to be a big year for Pond5. The company recently launched a redesigned website and is now gearing up for a second round of funding. Its only previous round was $500,000 raised through New York Angels way back in 2007.

For more on Pond5, watch our video interview with Business Development & Operations Manager, Chris Hwang from September last year.

Martin Bryant was Editor-at-Large at The Next Web. He left the company in April 2016 for pastures new. You can find him on Twitter, on Snapchat as Martinsfp, subscribe to him on Facebook and visit his personal site. He's based in Manchester, UK and has a thing for quirky American music and Japanese video games.